A functional and environmentally green procedure for
the design
of novel pyridine
5a
–
h
and
7a
–
d
derivatives through two pathways
is presented. The first pathway is via a one-pot, four-component reaction
of
p
-formylphenyl-4-toluenesulfonate (
1
), ethyl cyanoacetate (
2
), acetophenone derivatives
3a–h
or acetyl derivatives
6a
–
d
, and ammonium acetate (
4
) under microwave irradiation
in ethanol. The advantages of this method are an excellent yield (82%–94%),
pure products, a short reaction time (2–7 min), and low-cost
processing. The second pathway was obtained by the traditional method
with treatment of the same mixture under refluxing in ethanol, which
afforded the same products,
5a
–
h
and
7a
–
d
, in less yield (71%–88%) and
over a longer reaction time (6–9 h). The constructions of the
novel compounds were articulated via spectral and elemental analysis.
Overall, the compounds have been designed, synthesized, and studied
for their in vitro anti-inflammatory activity using diclofenac as
a reference drug (5 mg/kg). The most potent four compounds,
5a
,
5f
,
5g
, and
5h
,
showed promising anti-inflammatory activity.